Washington A growing group of younger, more active House Democrats are running against seasoned veterans for influential legislative positions as Donald Trump returns to the White House, breaking the party’s long-standing custom of showing respect for seniority.
Democrats are closely observing the high-profile contest to be the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee as a litmus test about the future of seniority in the party, as they will elect their committee leaders behind closed doors next week.
Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., 74, who is fighting esophageal cancer and was recently elected to his ninth term, is facing off against Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., a 35-year-old member of the progressive team who is frequently cited as a potential presidential candidate.
According to a House Democrat with decades of congressional service, seniority will disappear if Hillary wins.
In response to challenges from comparatively younger upstarts, some influential committee leaders have already resigned. Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., 77, the former chairman and current ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, was forced out of the contest when Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., 61, the senior Democrat on the Oversight Committee this Congress, declared he would run against Nadler. (Nadler joined Congress in 1992, but Raskin has been in the House since 2017.) Raskin became the Democratic leader on Judiciary as a result, and the Oversight position became available.
The ranking member of the Natural Resources Committee, 11-term Representative Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., 76, took a lengthy leave of absence this year after announcing a cancer diagnosis, and six-term Representative Jared Huffman, D-Calif., 60, made a surprising bid against him. Instead of running for office, Grijalva stepped aside and threw his support to Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M., 45, a fellow Southwesterner who was elected in 2020 and formally began her campaign on Monday.
Given two retirements, Huffman, the fourth-most senior Democrat on the panel this Congress, would rank second in seniority next year; Stansbury would probably rank fifth.
Fueled by ‘the Biden debacle’ in 2024 election
The phenomenon, according to a Democrat in the Biden administration, is a result of the Biden election fiasco, which taught younger Democrats that their elders won’t voluntarily go and that they occasionally need to be pushed out.
Long-standing friction that accumulated during the nearly two decades that Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., occupied the conference’s top position is a secondary cause.
According to the Democratic official, there will be no room for members who are not capable of carrying out these duties under Trump 2.0. There was always going to be a revolt downstream, but it made natural that it would take a cycle after [Pelosi and her colleagues] went.
The official, who is not allowed to discuss politics in public, said it is in line with other instances of well-known liberals refusing to cede their positions of authority, such as Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who passed away last year, and regret over Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s choice to remain in office until her death in 2020, which allowed Trump to establish a conservative 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court.
For many years, rank-and-file members of the Democratic Party have chosen their committee leaders largely based on seniority. And once committee members won the job of chairman (or ranking Democrat in a GOP majority), they were pretty much guaranteed to hold on to the job until they faced retirement, scandal or death.
Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn., 52, a Democratic “Frontliner” who is among the panel’s least senior members, and Rep. Jim Costa, D-Calif., 72, a third-generation farmer who is next in line in seniority, are challenging Rep. David Scott, D-Ga., 79, who has had health issues for years, in the race for ranking member of the Agriculture Committee.
Rep. Greg Casar,the 35-year-oldTexasDemocrat who was elected Progressive Caucus chair last week, said there s an infusion of new blood in the upper echelons of the party.
That s already happening, he said, citing Raskin s ascent on the Oversight Committee last session even though he wasn t a senior member. I believe that the Democratic caucus is beginning to realize that reform is necessary. We can and that can sometimes mean changing the person in the role, or it could also just mean changing the way that we do things. And I think we need to change and show people, show voters that we are willing to fight tooth and nail for them.
‘There s a generational shift’
It s not just younger members of Congress clamoring for generational change. Some veteran lawmakers who ve been waiting in the wings for years for their chances to lead also want to see new blood.
It s healthy. Frankly, in some cases, it s overdue. Rep. Bill Foster, D-Ill., a member of the powerful Financial Services Committee, stated that he has long admired the Republican system of term limits. He has previously suggested that committee leaders be subject to six-year term limits unless they receive waivers, which are the same term limits used by House Republicans.
It s a much healthier way for people who end up spending a long time in Congress to have productive careers and, at the same time, allowing people like me who came into Congress in my 50s after two productive other careers to still have a path forward, Foster, 69, continued.
It s a sort of interesting situation where you have baby boomers leading the charge for generational change, said Foster, who wasone of the ringleadersof an effort to force Pelosi, then the House speaker, to step down as Democratic leader after the 2022 midterm elections, paving the way for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., who at 54 is three decades her junior.
One of the pro-seniority power centers in the caucus has been the Congressional Black Caucus, or CBC.
Decades ago, Black lawmakers often struggled to secure coveted committee leadership posts. So the once-small CBC prioritized seniority to help some of its members secure committee gavels and ranking member slots. As time went on, it pushed back against proposals for term limits for committee leadership posts and offered its strong support for Pelosi and her team, which protected her and it.
That strategy paid off. This Congress, five CBC members led House committees: David Scott on Agriculture; Bobby Scott, D-Va., on Education and Workforce; Maxine Waters, D-Calif., on Financial Services; Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., on Foreign Affairs; and Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., on Homeland Security.
The CBC has grown in size and political clout in recent years. In the next Congress, there will bea record 62 CBC members, more than a quarter of the 215-member Democratic caucus. While CBC leaders insist that seniority isn t dead and that it is still a factor in choosing leaders, they acknowledge that change is afoot in the party as leaders are aging.
It s very clear that we have so much talent and … there s a generational shift within the body. But I think that there are enough folks within the body who recognize the value of seniority but don t necessarily see it as the only criteria, said incoming CBC Chair Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., who is 60.
Clarke and current CBC Chair Steven Horsford, D-Nev., said the group will host candidates who want to lead committees at a private forum Wednesday as they seek support from colleagues.
‘It takes experience to do things well’
Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Ill., 68, another CBC member, said she takes no issue with younger members challenging senior colleagues. Kelly will have an important role in the committee selection process. Jeffries just named her and Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, of Florida, and Nanette Barrag n, of California, as the three co-chairs of the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, which makes recommendations to the full caucus about how to fill committee leader slots.
The Steering panel, closely aligned with Jeffries, will meet Tuesday and most likely again next week to debate and issue its recommendations. Then the full caucus will vote by secret ballot.
Forever, everyone s had the right to run. Everyone hasn t done it, you know. And now I feel like people having the right to run doesn t mean they re going to win. And those who feel like there should just be seniority-based will vote one way, and those who feel like it should be different will vote another, Kelly said. “So I believe in seniority, but I m not 100% wedded to it.
A Democratic committee staffer made the case for seniority, arguing that the House GOP system in which committee chiefs get three-term limits, requiring waivers for fourth terms is a hot mess as new leaders tend to clean house and rid the staff of institutional knowledge. The GOP rules have also prompted numerous institutionalist leaders to retire from Congress entirely rather than accept demotions after their tenures are up.
I know Congress looks like a bunch of clowns, but actually it takes experience to do things well, the staffer said.
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